Wednesday, 13 August 2008

Dots and stripes

Back to the end of the field where Missaoud was working to the bugs I showed you the day before yesterday. Their latin name is Graphosoma italicum, also often called stink bugs (you'll find out why if you crush one) or shield bugs (because of their shape close to that of a knight's shield). They are known to love umbellifer flowers and to be widespread throughout southern Europe between June and October. They become rarer as you move north and are unknown in the UK.Their bright colours serve as deterrent to predators - warning that the bug is foul tasting. They have red and black stripes on their backs (shown here or scroll down to my post of 11th August) but dots on their bellies, a point I wanted to make by showing the photo below.Avignon photos - Avignon photosRetrouvons nos scutellères rayées d'avant-hier, photographiées juste en bordure du champ où travaillait Missaoud. On les appelle aussi punaises arlequin. Leur nom latin est Graphosoma italicum. Connues pour aimer les fleurs ombellifères, elles sont très répandues de juin à octobre dans tout le sud de l'Europe, mais deviennent plus rares quand on monte vers le nord et sont inconnues en Grande-Bretagne. Leurs couleurs vives servent d'avertissement aux prédateurs qu'elles ne sont pas comestibles. Elles ont des rayures sur le dos (voir ma photo du 11 août) mais des pois sur le ventre, comme le montre ma photo ci-dessous.

Gee, stinkbugs! And here I'd been calling them "Romeo and Juliet bugs," since they always seem to hang around in twos. Apologies to Shakespeare...

Read your comment on Eric's blog about there being no filming of the Dalai Lama....Chinese pressure on the French. Just awful. I think the Dalai Lama is the one person in the whole world who's got everything all figured out.

Mother might be right this time, at least for humans! What an interesting little bug he is. I love the photography too - gorgeous lime greens and oranges together. Mother nature always gets the colour schemes just right.

After six years in Australia and five years of city life in Avignon I moved to the countryside near the small village of Beaumes-de-Venise. Once dedicated to street photography my blog has since taken a more rural note but the beautiful region of Provence is an constant source of inspiration.